


heat sink

by SuddenlyTentacles



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Extremely Dubious Consent, Infidelity, Knotting, M/M, Minor Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Sexual Violence, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 01:32:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14727437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuddenlyTentacles/pseuds/SuddenlyTentacles
Summary: "If any of the Paladins had realized Lotor was just another lovesick buck alpha chasing the center of his universe, they had at least been kind enough not to rub it in his face– or he’d thought so, until Shirogane hadelectedto abandon Keith days before his heat would have hit, planning in all seriousness not to return until well after it was over."OrIf Shiro won't mark his omega, Lotor will.





	heat sink

**Author's Note:**

> shout out to the [Prince and Knight](https://chew-ie.tumblr.com/prince-and-knight/) keitor discord for making this shit happen, it's all based on the lovely [Ravvy](https://ravacious.tumblr.com/) and the infamous [Wander's](https://allawander.tumblr.com/) headcanon-jamming about [bleusailors' incredible spicy keitor art.](https://bleusailors.tumblr.com/post/168727349915/some-spicy-keitor-3/)
> 
> and all the thanks in the world to [Min](https://chew-ie.tumblr.com/) for betaing this to hell and back, it wouldn't be half this good without her <3

From the day he’d first allied himself with the Paladins of Voltron, Lotor had watched Keith go unclaimed through nearly a dozen heats. He’d thought almost nothing of it at the beginning; one or two heats unmarked was par for the course of bonding, more for a particularly exacting omega. The lack of a mark was perhaps a little surprising in the face of how sickeningly affectionate the couple was, even outside of Keith’s heats, but there was no accounting for traditionalistic sentiment. 

Keith’s fourth heat came and went, and Lotor privately raised an eyebrow at Keith’s unmarked nape but kept his thoughts to himself. He was a guest after all, and it was only their extended hospitality that had spared him from being hunted down and slaughtered by his own father. If that wasn’t worth overlooking strange manners, what was?

By the time Keith’s sixth heat was past, Lotor had come to consider Keith his sole friend in the entire universe. His generals had deserted him, taking up arms against him under his father’s banner; the other Paladins were cordial enough, but there was no disguising their lingering distrust and discomfort, despite the pains he took to toe the moral lines they drew in the sands of war. Perhaps they sensed his efforts were more a product of sheer pragmatism than any true belief, but his survival still hinged on their tolerance, and he wasn’t about to engage them in spirited debate on moral relativism. In any case, he doubted they’d find such a debate as diverting as he sometimes did.

Keith, on the other hand. Keith was devastatingly fierce, honorable, and deadly in combat. Keith was fearless and guileless and could carve victory from utter chaos. Keith was the sole reason Lotor was still alive after a mission went up in flames on a remote Galra-occupied colony and left them stranded for days, hunted without pause through an unfamiliar city until they were half-mad with sleep deprivation and blood loss. When Keith had returned them both to the castle, victorious and covered in ash and gore, and had then passed through his fifth heat unclaimed? Lotor had bit his lip until it bled to keep his silence and stop himself from speaking out of turn in defense of his friend’s honor.

Keith was exquisite, an impossibly rare creature in the vast void of the universe, and Shirogane treated him like a cheap rag to be used at his leisure.

After the seventh heat, Lotor had waited until Keith had slipped quietly into the melancholy mood that took him after each heat, and then he had absconded with him and a bottle of the spirits Hunk had distilled for cooking, taking to the stars in his Sincline ship. He’d given Keith the helm with a flourish to see him smile for the first time in days, and Keith had picked a planet that was almost nothing but sand and craggy, hostile canyons, pointing it out excitedly on the ship’s console. They’d landed on a plateau that surveyed miles of the ragged landscape and had sat down on the very edge of it to pass the bottle back and forth.

He’d spent the past month carefully arranging logical, inoffensive arguments and simple observations. Unfortunately, Hunk was as skilled in distillery as he was in every other endeavor he undertook, and when Lotor had decided to speak after half a bottle, what had come out was, “Why do you let him treat you like this?”

It had been blunt and accusatory and nowhere near what one could consider ‘tactful.’ Keith had actually gaped at him, frozen in the act of reaching for the bottle, his mouth opening and closing for a solid thirty ticks before he’d finally spluttered, “ _What?_ ”

The conversation had gone about as well as could be expected given that Lotor had spent half a varga castigating Keith’s beloved alpha to his face, purging half a year’s worth of frustration and pain for his friend in a barely coherent drunken rant, while Keith had given increasingly angry excuses until they were left screaming at each other in the blazing light of a frankly incredible sunset. 

The flight back to the castle had been nothing but sullen, bitter silence and had ended with an irate Shirogane lecturing them over the not-insignificant dent Keith had put in the hangar door frame in his drunken but ultimately successful attempt to land the Sincline ship. Lotor, also drunk and acutely aware of the strength of Hunk’s spirits in the immediate aftermath of the bottle, had personally considered their survival of the trip a commendation of Keith’s skill as a pilot.

The next afternoon, Lotor had caught the muffled echoes of a truly spectacular argument in the living quarter’s corridor, and Keith and Shirogane had spent the next two days in chilly indifference to one another. It had lit faint sparks of hope he hadn’t even realized he’d held, fanned them into proper flames, and then stomped them out again when the pair had resumed their relationship by the third day as if nothing had happened, leaving him alone with the bitter realization that he no longer saw Keith as simply his friend. His friendship with Keith had been far slower to repair, and Lotor had held his peace through three more heats, refusing to endanger it again.

And then the war was over, his father was dead, and the empire became the republic. The new council, a thousand warlords-turned-politicians strong, wanted nothing to do with Zarkon’s wayward legacy, regardless of the Paladins’ ringing endorsements of his sparkling new moral character. It’d been fine by him, especially when the Paladins had invited him to continue living within the castle. The castle was secure, and he was well supplied by the Paladins as long as he continued to fight alongside them and support their peacekeeping endeavors. He’d finally had the freedom he’d fought for tooth and claw for years. 

If any of the Paladins had realized he was just another lovesick buck alpha chasing the center of his universe, they had at least been kind enough not to rub it in his face– or he’d thought so, until Shirogane had _elected_ to abandon Keith days before his heat would have hit, planning in all seriousness not to return until well after it was over.

Lotor had watched Keith struggle to smile and reassure Shirogane that he would be fine, that it was important to preserve the fragile truce between the vulnerable new Galra state and a coalition full of its former victims still crying out for more justice. He’d watched Shirogane smile fondly down at Keith and thank him for understanding, touch his face gently, and press a kiss to his forehead. Lotor had clenched his fists in silence until blood had dripped from his palms where his claws had pierced them. 

Keith’s smile had vanished the moment Shirogane had turned his back, shuttered behind a taut, hollow expression and wide, wet eyes that made Lotor want to hurl Shirogane to the ground and tear his throat out with his teeth.

Instead, he’d walked away and made a plan.

He’d long since deduced the rough location of Keith’s den from the simple elimination of where it wasn’t. It was well hidden, but predictably so, and the castle was ultimately a limited space; there were only so many suitable bolt-holes for an omega in heat. Keith had simply claimed a small suite in an unused servants’ wing, set well apart from the main traffic areas.

Lotor waited patiently until he was certain Keith’s disappearance truly marked the beginning of his heat, spending the first half of the day on the training deck; he kept his exertions to light conditioning, limbering up in preparation for the test ahead. He and Keith were nearly matched in sparring, enough that it was difficult to recall who was ahead by how many victories at any given time, but he had no idea if Keith’s heat would make him more or less dangerous– what turned some omegas blood-thirsty all but crippled others, and there was no telling where Keith would fall on the spectrum. 

Lotor might have had more of an inkling had he ever faced Keith in those tense few days preceding an omega’s heat like the surge of a tide before the storm, but the moment Keith sensed his pre-heat, he became far quieter and more withdrawn than ever and did his best to cut himself off from the others. 

It was a thin veneer of control drawn over a blatant build-up of paranoia and aggression. No matter how tightly Keith wrapped his arms around himself, Lotor still saw his fingers twitch into claws– could all but hear his teeth grind together when one of Keith's fellow Paladins cornered him for a conversation and looked him in the eye for minutes on end. By the time Keith’s heat properly hit, he was a twitching mess of frayed nerves that no one could avoid stepping on.

Lotor had never once seen him properly lose control and lash out with anything but words. It was impressive, in its own appalling way, given how the other Paladins couldn’t seem to bring themselves to leave Keith in peace for more than a few minutes at a time or even bother to display a bit of deference. Lotor had seen plenty of Galra lose blood or hide to pre-heat omegas for failing to maintain a respectful distance or avert their eyes.

Lotor stopped at midday, satisfied with the sweat he’d worked up and the knowledge that Keith would be well into his heat. He’d eschewed the most protective pieces of his armor and had trained in the flight suit alone; he was confident it would offer enough protection to ease the test, but not enough to make Keith doubt the strength of his commitment. 

He stood briefly in the center of the deck, eyes closed and face tilted towards the ceiling, seeking to settle himself, but his veins were humming with anticipation. He knew for a fact that he had not caught a single whiff of Keith yet today, but the distant memories of the few times he had before haunted him, taunting him with the ghost of Keith’s scent– sharp as wood smoke and smooth as steel when he’d stolen a breath of it and rolled it over his tongue months ago. He could taste it again now, whetting the edge of the hunger that had weighed heavily on his heart since the day he’d dared to hope Keith would dismiss Shirogane.

But only fools prayed an omega would fall into their arms; a true alpha went hunting.

Lotor turned on his heel and left the training deck, striding calmly towards Keith’s den through dim, disused corridors. It was a short walk, and soon he was standing in front of a sealed door he’d only approached in his dreams.

Keith’s scent seeped from the seams of it; Lotor leaned in until his nose brushed the cold steel of the door and breathed deeply, dragging the air in through his mouth slowly and savoring the almost acrid flavor as it flowed over his tongue. He could feel his blood begin to throb in his veins, rising like the tide before a storm and pulsing hotly in his throat, his temples, his _jaw._ His mouth burned and ached as muscles tensed and released, spasming with excitement and the urge to _bite,_ filling his mouth with a slow flood of venom. Lotor swallowed it down, and then swallowed again, and again.

He touched the lock plate, and the door hissed open.

The room inside was comfortably dim, lit by the dull blue glow of Altean fixtures at their lowest settings. The bed was cut into the wall opposite the doorway, larger and deeper than the Paladins’ personal bunks. In the center of it was a veritable mountain of mismatched pillows and blankets, halfway to the ceiling. Stacked neatly on the floor at the edge of the bed were piles of boxed rations and drink pouches. 

Lotor sneered at Shirogane’s feeble offering and stepped into the room, announcing himself with a deep, subvocal rumble from the depths of his chest as the doors slid shut behind him.

The mountain of bedding stirred and then toppled backwards as Keith shoved himself upright and stood up from underneath it, swaying unsteadily in the center of the bed. His hair was plastered to his face with sweat, his head set low and his gaze dangerously fixed on Lotor where he stood; he was clad only in a robe that was barely clinging to his shoulders and loosely secured around his waist, disheveled and leaving his flushed chest exposed and gleaming in the low light.

“What are you _doing?_ ” he hissed through bared teeth.

Lotor took a step forward.

“Get out! _Get the fuck out!_ ”

Keith’s fury seemed to shake the room around them, the ringing vibrations of his scream traveling through the air to shiver into Lotor’s skin and raise his hackles. Lotor fixed his eyes on Keith’s and took another step forward, steeling himself as he crossed an invisible line. Keith’s eyes widened with shock and rage, and his clenched fists began to shake. It was all the warning Lotor was given.

Keith charged him with a wordless scream, hurling himself at Lotor like a hurricane.

Lotor let him come, standing his ground. He slapped aside the first punch aimed at his solar plexus, and the next at his ribs, then Keith’s knee slammed into the outside of his thigh. Lotor’s leg went weak with the explosion of pain and he shifted his weight to the other, following through the motion to dodge the next wild punch Keith threw at his chin. Lotor regained his balance, ignoring his leg’s protests and stepping back from another punch aimed at his face. He was ready for it this time, confident now that Keith wasn’t thinking clearly in his heat. 

He caught Keith by the wrist and rushed to twist Keith’s arm into a joint lock, but Keith lunged forward into him and hooked his leg around Lotor’s, jockeying to throw him off balance and drag him to the ground. Lotor abandoned his hold and scrambled backwards, his rapid footwork barely keeping him upright as Keith chased him with a spinning kick that Lotor had seen break bones. 

He couldn’t back up quickly enough– he grimaced and blocked it with a folded arm, wheezing as his right side exploded in blinding pain. His arm went numb with the impact, white spots flashing in his vision, and Lotor grabbed blindly for Keith’s leg. He felt it slip through his grasp and paid for his gambit with a blow to the face, Keith’s fist connecting solidly with his cheek. Lotor staggered and Keith pressed his advantage relentlessly, punching him once, twice in the gut, then stepping back and kicking forward, driving his heel into the same spot he’d struck.

Lotor took it all, and traded the pain for a solid grip on Keith’s leg. Keith’s face contorted even further in a fresh rush of rage at being caught, and he screamed again as Lotor charged forward, driving Keith backward and slamming him into the wall beside the bed. Keith swiped at his eyes, and Lotor released the leg to intercept him with a snarl of frustration, grabbing one flailing hand and yanking Keith’s arm across his torso. The other hand proved more elusive, repeatedly slipping from his grasp as Keith thrashed and writhed between Lotor’s body and the wall, snarling and snapping at Lotor’s hand when it came too close to his face. Keith drove knee after knee into Lotor’s legs all the while, and Lotor kept his groin pressed to Keith’s hip and out of their range, still half hard despite the painful onslaught.

He finally caught Keith’s free hand by the wrist and twisted it until he’d locked Keith’s arm out straight, and he used it to pin Keith’s other arm to his chest. With his other hand, he grabbed Keith’s face by the jaw and shoved his head up against the wall, exposing his throat. Keith kept kicking and thrashing until Lotor pinned one leg by wrapping his own around it and standing on Keith’s foot, and then used his knee to shove Keith’s other leg aside until his stance was too wide and precarious for him to generate any force. Keith twitched and struggled in his grasp, his eyes rolling wildly and his teeth flashing like a trapped animal’s, but they were at a standstill. 

Keith was properly pinned, and without a drop of his blood spilled; Lotor had taken everything Keith had thrown at him and triumphed. Slowly, he caught his breath, even as Keith continued to pant and gasp.

“Hush,” Lotor whispered, bowing his head and brushing his venom-damp lips over Keith’s throat. “I have you now. I have you.” Lotor pressed a wet kiss to his skin and felt the sob that tore through Keith’s throat under his lips.

“Lotor, _stop,_ ” Keith croaked. “What are you doing? _Why are you doing this?_ ” Lotor trailed more kisses along his throat, slowly traveling upwards over the edge of Keith’s jaw, over his tear-tracked cheek to his ear.

“I am giving you what Shirogane has denied you,” he growled, pressing their cheeks together and nuzzling him as he spoke. “I _will not_ watch him continue to neglect you–”

“Lotor, I _promised_ him, please–”

“I _will not_ stand aside while he _shits_ on your loyalty, your _honor–_ ”

“He’s not! Lotor, he’s not, he’s– he’s–”

Keith’s breath hitched, and his words were lost to another sob. He slowly ceased struggling altogether, and he hung limply in Lotor’s grasp. Cautiously, Lotor relaxed his grip on Keith’s jaw, allowing him to lower his chin, and was encouraged when Keith didn’t immediately sink his teeth into his hand. 

Instead, Keith’s head hung listlessly, his chin tucked against his chest as tears leaked bitterly from eyes squeezed shut. It made Lotor’s heart ache and then burn with fury at Shirogane, wherever he was.

He cupped Keith’s jaw in his hand again, cradling his face and lifting it to press more wet open-mouthed kisses to his cheek, scouring away tears with his tongue and leaving hot smears of venom in their place.

“You deserve better,” Lotor hissed, aching with it; it was a refrain that had drummed constantly in his mind over the past year, beating in him like a second heart. 

Keith sobbed again and began to shake his head in denial, but Lotor pressed his lips fiercely to the corner of Keith’s mouth– not touching his lips, not yet– and pinned him against the hand holding his head up, stopping him.

“Let me do this for you,” he whispered, his lips brushing against Keith’s trembling skin. “Let me give you this, please– let me have you.”

Silence stretched taut through the den, the only sound Keith’s ragged breath, hitching on quiet, bitten off sobs. 

Lotor waited, tense as steel wire as he lingered near Keith’s mouth and let venom drip enticingly from his lips, hoping the scent of it was half as alluring as Keith’s musk was to him. He mouthed at Keith’s cheek and jaw with deliberate slowness, dragging it out and trying to ignore the cold creep of doubt as Keith continued to do nothing, neither struggling nor embracing him.

“Please,” he murmured again. “Let me keep you.”

Another beat passed in silence. Then Keith dragged in a deep, shaky breath and turned his head towards Lotor, bringing their lips together.

Relief burst in his chest like thermite, blazing white hot with triumphant joy. He released Keith’s arms and seized his face with both hands while he deepened the kiss hungrily, licking into Keith’s lax mouth and drinking him in. Keith tasted incredible, like salt and steel and hot sun-baked air– but under it all was something disgustingly bitter, making Lotor’s lip curl into an involuntary snarl.

_Shirogane._

He growled absently into Keith’s mouth and released his legs, letting go of his face as well to drag his hands down over Keith’s sides and under his ass, then lifted him. Keith went up easily, digging his fingers into Lotor’s shoulder and wrapping his legs around Lotor’s waist.

Lotor crushed their their chests together, pinning Keith to the wall and freeing his hands to roam over Keith’s sides again. The hot, wet press of his groin to Lotor’s stomach sent fire pulsing through his veins with dizzying heat, and Lotor raced to unfasten his own suit at the nape of his neck. 

Keith’s hands were already there, scrabbling blindly at his neckline until Lotor loosened it and they finally found purchase. He all but tore the suit from Lotor’s shoulders, barely freeing Lotor’s arms before his hands were distracted by the fresh expanse of Lotor’s fevered skin and went sliding over his shoulders, groping and scratching.

The suit was still trapped by Keith’s legs wrapped around his waist, an infuriating barrier between his aching cock and Keith, who was dripping wet now and grinding himself greedily against Lotor’s stomach, occasionally brushing the head of his trapped cock in an absolute torment. Lotor broke their kiss to breathe and to better see what he was doing, and Keith whined plaintively, grabbing at his head and neck to drag him back in. 

There was only one thing to be done about the suit; Lotor gritted his teeth, pried one of Keith’s legs away from his midsection, and shoved himself away, letting Keith hold himself up by his grip on Lotor’s shoulders. The whine instantly transformed into a furious scream, Keith’s fingers turning into rigid claws that bit into Lotor’s skin, drawing blood as they raked over his shoulders.

Lotor shoved the suit down just enough to free his leaking cock and left it tight around the tops of his thighs as he crashed back into Keith, crushing him bodily into the wall and finding his mouth with his own again, silencing him. Keith’s grip didn’t loosen in the slightest, and he carved more fiery wounds into Lotor’s shoulders as he fought to drag him impossibly closer.

Lotor’s cock slid along the juncture of Keith’s hip, brushing against his soft, dripping cock under the robe and making Keith’s hips jerk forward in desperation. Lotor was panting too now, and he broke their kiss again to mouth at the side of Keith’s neck and listen to Keith beg, whispering, “Please, please, _please,_ ” prettily into Lotor’s hair.

“Of course,” Lotor whispered back fiercely, rolling his hips against Keith’s and slowly sliding their cocks together. Any other time Lotor could have spent hours taking him apart, but not now, not when Keith had gone without for so long, when Lotor had gone so long without _him._ “Anything you want, everything, it’s all yours– I am yours.”

Keith turned his head and found Lotor’s mouth again, delivering a harsh, biting kiss. Lotor took his cue and ran a hand down Keith’s side, down between them and then between Keith’s legs as Keith bucked forward into the touch with a groan. 

His groin was a soaking mess, smeared with slick from his cunt and precome beading at the tip of his cock. Lotor’s fingers dipped carefully behind his balls and sank into soft, swollen folds– the response was immediate. Keith went from holding himself up to using his grip on Lotor’s shoulders to shove himself down onto his fingers with a desperate gasp.

Lotor quickly added a third finger to the two Keith had captured and spread them, testing Keith’s limits– his frame was unnervingly small for a Galra, but he seemed to stretch well and only struggled to take the fingers deeper when Lotor spread them as wide as his cunt would allow.

“Please,” Keith gasped again, “Fuck me, just fuck me, _please,_ I need it—” He broke off into a wail when Lotor pulled his fingers free, thrashing and fighting to chase after them.

“Hush,” Lotor commanded, “I told you, I am yours.” And with that, he pulled Keith away from the wall and hurled him backwards onto the bed.

Keith’s wail turned from pained and pitiful to indignant and furious at the sudden loss of contact. Lotor hurriedly finished stripping his suit and cast it aside just in time to meet Keith at the edge of the bed and throw him back down onto the mattress, flipping him onto his stomach. Keith howled his outrage again and began to push himself to his hands and knees. 

Lotor was on him in an instant, planting a hand between Keith’s shoulder blades and shoving him flat on his stomach. He seated himself on the tops of Keith’s thighs, kneeling over him and letting his cock rest heavily on the curve of Keith’s ass. Keith snarled at him but rocked his hips up needily, lust rapidly subverting his anger.

Lotor reached up to Keith’s nape and brushed his hair away. Keith went utterly still at the touch, freezing as Lotor’s fingertips grazed the feverish bonding glands hidden beneath. They were swollen and dark, standing out starkly against Keith’s skin even in the dim light, three throbbing on either side of his spine like blisters. 

Perfectly, insultingly unblemished. Lotor’s mouth watered at the sight of them, a fresh swell of venom spilling from the corners of his parted lips to drip onto Keith’s back.

_Not yet._

Lotor hooked his ankles over the back of Keith’s knees and pulled them apart, spreading Keith’s legs wide and dragging a groan of anticipation from his omega. He dragged his hand down Keith’s spine to the small of his back and pinned him there with his full weight, then pulled his hips back and aligned himself with Keith’s cunt.

“Be good, now,” he warned, and then shoved himself inside.

Keith took a scant few inches of his length and then tightened like a vice with a scream. His hands flew back to clutch at Lotor’s, clawing at them with his nails. Lotor growled a warning and pressed his hips forward, sinking a few inches deeper as Keith sobbed.

The heat of Keith’s cunt clutching at his cock was exquisite, burning through him and flowing straight to his head, leaving Lotor nearly dizzy with the pleasure. He shifted so that his knees were between Keith’s legs and pushed them even further apart, ignoring Keith’s whimpers at the stretch. 

Lotor pried Keith’s legs open until he felt Keith give way a bit more around his cock, then rolled his hips back and shoved them forward again, driving a shout out of Keith and burying himself slightly deeper. 

He did it again, and then again, shutting his eyes and savoring the frantic flex of Keith squeezing around him. Keith’s body relaxed a bit each time he pulled back, clearly enjoying the hot drag of Lotor’s cock through his hole and making it just a bit easier to press deeper until he tensed against the pain again. 

Lotor slowly picked up his pace, rocking in and out of Keith faster and faster, working to blur the line between pleasure and pain for his omega. Keith moaned and yelped and thrashed beneath him, babbling a steady stream of nonsense, begging ‘please’ and ‘stop’ and ‘fuck me’. It was all the same, sweet noise to Lotor. 

He bowed over Keith and wrapped one arm around his ribs and the other around his shoulders, clutching him tightly as he rutted faster and deeper into him. Keith was looser now, even wetter than when they’d started, and Lotor’s knot slapped against his entrance with each thrust. 

Keith’s skin was searing hot and every touch drove Lotor closer to the edge of his orgasm, stoking the molten heat coiling low in his gut. He nuzzled the side of Keith’s throat with a rumbling growl and planted a wet, open mouthed kiss there, smearing venom over his skin. 

“So good for me,” he whispered harshly, his breath coming ragged. “So good. You deserve so much better than him.” 

Keith wailed again at his words and hid his face in the mattress, one hand burying itself in Lotor’s hair and holding him in place and the other clawing at his arm wrapped around Keith’s shoulders, trying to pry it away. Lotor ignored them both.

“I could never dream of abandoning you the way he did. You are so, _so_ precious,” he panted. Lotor felt fresh sobs tear themselves from Keith and planted another kiss on his neck. He unwound his arms from around Keith, resting heavily on Keith’s back and pressing him deeper into the mattress, then gripped Keith’s hips tightly with both hands. 

“Let me keep you,” he whispered again, and rammed his knot into Keith.

Keith’s scream was deafening, but Lotor’s world had narrowed down to the hot press of Keith’s cunt strangling his cock. For the longest heartbeat, Keith was an iron vice around him. Then, he shuddered, gasped, and came with a hoarse shout. He throbbed around Lotor’s cock, trembling violently as his body worked to wring Lotor’s orgasm from him. 

It was building in him rapidly, fire rolling up from his belly to spread under every inch of his skin, and Lotor quickly covered Keith’s bonding glands with his mouth. His fangs scraped lightly over the tender, paper-thin skin separating them, and he shook with the effort of holding his mouth open, waiting, _waiting–_

He came like a detonation and bit deep into Keith’s nape, splitting skin and spilling the hot venom trapped beneath it. If Keith screamed again, he was deaf to it. There was nothing but the heat of Keith’s body beneath and around him as Lotor’s cock throbbed and poured come into Keith with every pulse. 

Pure molten fire flooded his mouth and Lotor sucked at it, swallowing it greedily, and drank as deeply as he could with his teeth embedded in the muscle of Keith’s neck. It was salty-sweet, blood and venom blending in his mouth, but only for a moment. 

Bitterness quickly overwhelmed the milder flavors of Keith’s essence. The remains of Shirogane’s venom were vile, turning his stomach, but Lotor only sucked harder at Keith’s burst glands. He would drain every last damned trace of the callous shitheel from Keith’s body and pour himself into the omega in Shirogane's place.

Fortunately, the lingering traces of the other alpha’s half-formed bond did nothing to dampen the effects of Keith’s venom. Slowly, the fire of arousal settled into a warm weightlessness, a soft sense of floating creeping into his mind as he drank. 

When he could taste nothing but blood, Lotor released Keith’s nape, his jaw aching in protest as he unlocked it and began to lap up the trickles of venom that had escaped his lips. He stroked Keith’s sides absently as a blurry sense of warm contentment settled over him, tugging him towards sleep, and he pressed a kiss to the unbroken skin between the two weeping crescents of his bite mark.

“My own,” he murmured drowsily. Keith groaned softly in response, the sound bordering on a whimper. He was limp beneath Lotor for the first time, already breathing slow and deep. Lotor nuzzled his jaw and kissed it, rolling them both onto their sides as he did so, gathering Keith securely against his chest in exchange for the lost pressure of his weight. 

Keith whined and squirmed briefly in protest, but his movements were sluggish and half-hearted at best, and he slowly calmed again as Lotor held him tightly. Keith was as warm and welcoming as a bonfire in his arms, and Lotor found himself curling even closer around him. He tucked his knees behind Keith’s and buried his nose in his omega’s hair to better drink in his scent as sleep crept closer through the haze of euphoria. 

In moments, he was gone.

Lotor woke slowly, far more slowly than he had in the past two days– or what he assumed had been two days. They had passed in a hazy blur, one long indistinct smear of darkness interrupted by hot skin, bursts of pleasure, and stomach-churning bitterness that he could not get enough of. By the end, Keith had taken his cock so sweetly and easily he’d hardly had to wake to roll over and knot him and tear his wounds anew.

He realized quickly that he felt distinctly sober and that Keith was not in his arms. He frowned, opening his eyes, and relaxed as he spotted Keith immediately. Keith was perhaps half a foot away from Lotor, curled on his side away from him, one hand lightly fingering the bond mark on his nape.

It was lovely; the mark was smeared with a thin layer of dried blood, but it could not obscure the dark veins that spidered away under Keith’s skin, spreading out like wings from Lotor’s bite. They stood out starkly, a deep, almost black purple against Keith’s pale skin, leaving him unmistakably claimed. Something too bright and warm and fond to be called pride swelled in Lotor’s chest, until it felt fit to burst.

Keith startled under his touch when Lotor reached out and slid a hand over his ribs, moving over to fit himself to the curve of Keith’s spine again. He watched Lotor over his shoulder with wide eyes, tense but not rigid. Lotor pressed a kiss to his shoulder and then rested his chin upon it as Keith turned away to stare out into the bedroom. Keith was still touching the mark.

“Good morning,” Lotor said quietly. 

“…Why did you do this?” Keith whispered.

It hurt more than he’d expected. Lotor shut his eyes and let the pain roll through him, waiting for it to subside into a dull ache before he spoke.

“I already told you. Did you forget?” It was a legitimate question. The beginning of the heat was clear to him, but the rest of his memories were indistinct and muddled; he didn’t know precisely how Keith had been affected.

Keith was silent in his arms.

“Answer me,” Lotor said sharply. “Do you recall what I told you?”

Keith curled inwards on himself, turning his face away from Lotor into the mattress. A sudden spark of fury swept through Lotor and he shoved himself up and over Keith, grabbing his shoulder and shoving him flat on his back. It caught Keith by surprise and he flailed briefly until Lotor pinned him, then went still and stared up at Lotor.

“Do. You. Remember?” Lotor bit out. Keith flinched and began to turn his head, but Lotor caught him by the chin and held him steady, ignoring the hand that flew up to grab his wrist in return. “Tell me,” he growled. Tears welled up in Keith’s eyes, and he looked away from Lotor’s face.

“Yeah,” Keith croaked.

“Tell me,” Lotor snapped. “Repeat them back to me.”

Tears spilled from the corners of Keith’s eyes, and he released Lotor’s wrist to reach up and cover his face. Lotor snatched the hand away and released Keith’s chin to grab the other as well; Keith struggled again, twisting and nearly slipping from Lotor’s grasp, but ended up with both hands pinned to his chest by one of Lotor’s. Lotor threaded his other hand into Keith’s hair, fisting it in the sleek strands near his scalp, a nearly painless but secure hold.

“ _What did I say?_ ”

“You said you’d keep me.” It wasn’t a whisper, but Keith’s throat was so tight with grief the words were barely audible. Keith stared up at the wall behind him, still refusing to meet Lotor’s eyes.

“That’s right. What else?” Keith swallowed hard and shut his eyes, spilling more tears. He started to shake his head in protest, and Lotor tightened his grip to stop it. “There was more. What else?”

“Said you were— m-mine,” Keith gasped out, his voice breaking.

“I am,” Lotor said, relaxing his grip and stroking his fingers through Keith’s hair instead.

“Said you wouldn’t— wouldn’t—” Keith’s breath hitched and he writhed uncomfortably beneath Lotor. “Lotor, he didn’t—”

“He left you here _alone,_ ” Lotor snarled. “He left you to suffer through the _entirety_ of your heat _alone._ ” Keith began to shake his head again; Lotor didn’t bother to stop him. “He has never once even begun to mark you as his own, and he cared _nothing_ to leave you alone in heat with another alpha.”

“There’s a fucking _peace treaty_ at stake!” Keith yelled hoarsely, his eyes snapping open as he finally found it in himself to glare up at Lotor.

“It’s the Galra!” Lotor roared back. “Thousands of ceremonies and rituals have been delayed to honor heats! They’re all but sacred, no one with an ounce of honor would ask an omega to suffer one alone!”

“Humans don’t just drop ev—”

“You’re not human, not entirely—” 

“ _Goddammit Lotor, I love him!”_ Keith shoved him aside in a flurry of haphazard movement and scrambled backwards to sit upright against the wall. Lotor let him go, teeth bared in a grimace as he sat back on his heels. “I fucking love him, and he loves me!”

“Then why won’t he mark you?”

Lotor watched Keith’s face contort as Keith fought to hang on to his anger. He watched doubt and pain and grief bubble up through the cracks in Keith’s expression, until it finally crumpled.

“I don’t know,” Keith whispered, fresh tears rolling down his face. He drew his knees up, wrapping his arms around them and burying his face in them. “I don’t know, I don’t _know!”_

Lotor walked across the mattress on his knees and settled again in front of Keith, wrapping a hand around each of Keith’s ankles and tugging gently, pulling them out to either side of his hips. Keith hardly resisted. He let his arms drop as their support fell away and refused to lift his head.

“Come here,” Lotor murmured, reaching for him. Keith went easily, wrapping his arms around Lotor’s shoulder and tucking his head beneath his chin as Lotor leaned back and crossed his legs beneath Keith. He stroked a hand down Keith’s spine, from the edge of the mark down to the small of his back.

“Why doesn’t he want me?” Keith whispered, his voice breaking. The fury that bloomed in Lotor’s chest was pure ice, so cold and sharp he could have pulled it out and gutted Shirogane with it. He shoved it away for a more opportune time, and took a moment to breathe deeply before he answered.

“I don’t know. I can’t begin to comprehend how he could look at you and not want to keep you for himself,” he said truthfully. Keith cringed in his arms, curling more tightly around him, and a silent sob shook him.

“If he does,” Lotor said, slowly, hating himself for going through with this plan, for not leaving things where they lay now and making them all the more difficult for Shirogane. “If he loves you. If he wants you, he’ll have to take you from me. He’ll have to mark you and make sure it takes, if he wants you back.”

Keith was perfectly still in his arms now. The words had tasted as bitter to Lotor as the traces of Shirogane’s venom left inside of Keith.

But Shirogane was always going to return— only three days left now. Shirogane was never going stay gone for two or three more of Keith’s heats. Lotor had savaged Keith’s glands, but they would continue to function until they were overwhelmed by an alpha’s venom and could no longer protect Keith from its full effects.

And as much as he wanted Keith, as deeply as he ached for his omega, deeper ran the fear of a life of fruitless longing; him for Keith, and Keith for Shirogane. The only thing he wanted more than Keith was for Keith to want him.

Keith began to tremble in his arms. Lotor tightened his hold, and pressed a kiss to his temple, holding his mouth there and taking another deep breath.

“I love you too, you know,” he murmured.

Keith abruptly buried his face fully against Lotor’s bare chest, his grip on Lotor’s shoulders tightening until his nails threatened to break the skin yet again and leave still more marks. The pain was nothing next to the ache in Lotor’s chest or the burn of Keith’s hot tears on his skin.

“Please,” Lotor whispered, threading his fingers into Keith’s hair once more. “Let me keep you.”

Keith slowly, shakily, pushed himself away from Lotor’s chest and then looked up at him.

“Okay,” he whispered back, tears still leaking down his face. He began to nod. “Okay.”

Lotor’s heart skipped a beat. He stared back at Keith in stunned silence, cupped his face in one hand, and crushed their mouths together desperately. Keith’s hands flew up to Lotor’s face in return and held him there as he moved his lips over Lotor’s, leaning deeper into the kiss. Lotor held him more tightly than ever and couldn’t imagine ever letting go. 

**Author's Note:**

> i can't believe lotor cucked shiro
> 
> ok no but really, i love keitor and i love sheith, this isn't meant to be a commentary on the canon-ness/validity/problematitude of either ship, it's just something fucked up i wrote to get my rocks off.
> 
> oh and if there's anything in this fic you think should be tagged and it isn't, please let me know in the comments.


End file.
